Tag: news

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

One of the world’s largest oil producers and exporters, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has just launched the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world.  Touted as a major milestone for the UAE and its energy diversification, the project raises questions about the economic viability of an expensive nuclear power plant in one of the best spots for solar energy in the world. 

More importantly, the project also raises questions about the geopolitical implications of a nuclear facility in the restive Middle East region, where tensions increased after the assasination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani earlier this year.

Iran could trigger a nuclear arms race, experts say. 

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) successfully started up on Saturday Unit 1 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in Abu Dhabi, saying that the process was undertaken in line with regulatory requirements and the highest international standards for nuclear quality and safety. 

“We are now another step closer to achieving our goal of supplying up to a quarter of our Nation’s electricity needs and powering its future growth with safe, reliable, and emissions-free electricity,” said ENEC’s chief executive Mohamed Ibrahim Al Hammadi.

With the start-up of the Barakah nuclear power plant, the UAE became the first country in the Arab world, and the 33rd nation globally, to develop a nuclear energy plant to generate electricity, helping the oil-rich emirates to move towards electrification of its energy sector and decarbonization of its electricity production, ENEC says.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that the agency supports the UAE and other countries “that opt for introducing nuclear power, which plays a key role in achieving clean & affordable energy and in tackling #ClimateChange.”  While the UAE touts the safe and zero-emission electricity generation from nuclear power, some experts question the ‘safety’ part of that claim because of the lack of additional (and costly) safety features in the South Korean technology that the UAE uses for its first nuclear power facility. Rising sea levels also pose risks for the coastal Barakah nuclear plant, while radioactive waste could endanger marine life in the Gulf, Paul Dorfman, Founder and Chair of the non-profit Nuclear Consulting Group, wrote in an overview of UAE’s new reactors in December 2019. 

But the most concerning aspect of the first civil nuclear project in the Arab world is that it could spark a nuclear arms race and facilitate nuclear proliferation options for actors in the Gulf that choose to pursue it, experts warn.

“The tense geopolitical environment in the Gulf makes nuclear a more controversial issue in this region than elsewhere, as new nuclear power provides the capability to develop and make nuclear weapons,” Dorfman said. 

“It’s worth noting that emergent back-channels exist which may facilitate Gulf states obtaining advanced nuclear fuel cycle enrichment technologies if the decision is made to pursue a military proliferation option,” he noted.  

The simmering tensions between the Arab Gulf states – led by the UAE’s ally Saudi Arabia – on the one hand, and Iran, on the other hand, is a concern for energy and nuclear power experts. Iran is already under U.S. sanctions because of its nuclear ambitions. 

In March 2018, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told CBS in an interview that “Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.”  

The UAE has an agreement with the United States in which the emirates have renounced any intention to develop domestic enrichment and reprocessing capabilities. 

“For Gulf Arab rulers who fear that Washington is not a reliable long-term guardian, nuclear power generation may offer an alternate path to maintaining a US strategic interest in securing their regimes,” Jim Krane, a Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute, wrote earlier this year. 

Last but not least, the UAE nuclear power plant raises questions about the economics of pursuing costly nuclear electricity generation while solar power generation could thrive in the region endowed with sunlight. 

Just last week, the Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) announced the awarding of contracts to develop the world’s largest solar power plant of 2 gigawatts (GW) of capacity.

According to Nuclear Consulting Group’s Dorfman, new nuclear power generation can now only be built with very significant government subsidy, unlike renewables. 

“Since new nuclear makes little apparent sense in the Gulf, which has some of the best solar energy resources in the world, the nature of the interest in nuclear may lie hidden in plain sight,” he argues.  

What could be the largest ISIS jailbreak in the terror group’s history didn’t take place in Iraq or Syria, but just happened inside Afghanistan, where ISIS is attempting to make a come-back at a moment the US-Taliban truce deal is taking shaky effect.

It happened Monday after the Islamic State attacked a large prison complex in the eastern city of Jalalabad in which nearly 40 people were killed, among these 10 ISIS members, but some 300 escaped jihadists still remain a large.

Some international reports listed that as many as 400 terrorists may have escaped.

It reportedly began by a car bomb attack, after which ISIS gunmen surged into the prison area and ultimately overran the guards. ISIS held the prison throughout much of the day Monday as national defense forces laid siege, leading to a huge firefight. 

According to Reuters, hundreds escaped amid the chaos:

More than 300 prisoners were still at large, Attaullah Khugyani, spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, said, said. Of the 1,793 prisoners, more than 1,025 had tried to escape and been recaptured and 430 had remained inside.

“The rest are missing,” he said.

Jalalabad is an area known for heavy ISIS and other jihadist activity. The terror group got a foothold in central Asia years ago at the height of the Islamic State’s short-lived territorial caliphate over western Iraq and eastern Syria.

At least 24 dead as Islamic State storm prison in #Jalalabad

Gunshots from the battle between the attackers and #Afghan security forces that ensued on Monday can be heard in the footage. pic.twitter.com/LjSDQbLzqA

— Ruptly (@Ruptly) August 3, 2020

Currently an Eid al-Adha ceasefire is said to be holding between the Taliban and the national government in Kabul, also amid broader talks aimed at securing a long term and final US troops exit.

Though there’s been a number of ISIS prison break attempts in Syria of the past years, especially in Kurdish SDF-held territory, there’s been nothing on this scale involving hundreds of escaped in a single day.

Afghan security forces are still reportedly hunting down the escapees, but at this point many of likely disappeared into the mountains.

Authored by J.Peder Zane via RealClearPolitics.com,

Torch-carrying neo-Nazis in Charlottesville were the face of white supremacy in 2017.

Today it’s “Nice White Parents.”

That’s the title of a new podcast distributed by the New York Times which argues that many black and brown children are not excelling in our public schools because of “what is arguably the most powerful force in our schools: White parents.”

Specifically, liberal white parents who espouse enlightened views on race but then refuse to send their children to truly integrated schools – e.g. minority-majority without separate “gifted and talented” tracks – for fear they will be shortchanging their kids. Apart from the complex educational issues at play — including the inflammatory suggestion that minorities need to be around whites to succeed – the podcast reflects the left’s broader effort to demonize an unlikely group as it seeks to reduce every issue in American life to questions of race: liberal white women.

Trump-supporting conservatives and “patriarchal white males” are still in their crosshairs, but these women, long considered key allies in the cause, have become chief targets.

One example is the prevalence of the “Karen meme,” a social media label applied to white women allegedly exercising their “white privilege.” In some cases – such as the New York City woman who called the police on an African American birdwatcher in Central Park – it describes people who actually engage in racist actions. More often it involves far more ambiguous conflicts and micro-aggressions. But the larger message is clear: Karen resides in the heart of all white women, who have a conscious or unconscious desire to dominate minorities.

New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow wrote in May that he was “enraged by white women weaponizing racial anxiety, using their white femininity to activate systems of white terror against black men.” Last month, Washington Post Global Opinions Editor Karen Attiah tweeted, “White women are lucky that we are just calling them ‘Karen’s.’ And not calling for revenge.”

Ironically, it is their sensitivity to racial issues that makes white women easy targets. Many of them are powering the “Great Awokening” – the vast sea change in attitudes in which white liberals have moved farther to the left on a range of social and racial issues than even African Americans.

Some are paying $2,500 to host Race2Dinner meals at which their racial feelings are probed and their complicity in systemic injustice exposed by diversity experts.

Others have helped create a new genre of best-selling novels – what Naomi Schaefer Riley has described as “woke beach reads [that] infuse the best-selling template of white-bread chick lit with the consciousness of social justice warriors” in order “to educate whites about the deep racism that supports their privileged lives.”

Another best-selling book, “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo, explicitly singles out this group. As the white author told NPR, “My audience is the average, well-intended white person who sees themselves as open-minded, and yet cannot answer the question: ‘What does it mean to be white?’ I think white progressives can be the most challenging because we tend to be so certain that it isn’t us.”

Why are some women especially receptive and vulnerable to this guilt-tripping? At the risk of overgeneralizing, decades of research finds that women tend to experience guilt more frequently and deeply than men. These feelings may be intensified by social media, which appears to have contributed to growing rates of anxiety and depression, especially among younger women who are more likely to internalize criticism.

All women are not the same – just as all white people are not. But forces on the left have seen an opening they believe they can exploit.

If there is an endgame here besides the accrual of power and control, it is advancing the idea that being a nice person is no longer enough. Now that the vast majority of Americans are non-racists, the push is for everyone to become “anti-racist,” which is a whole different deal. Anti-racists are expected to actively strive each day to dismantle what they say is the systemic injustice that defines America. It means seeing every act as a political act that supports the existing tyranny if it doesn’t purposefully seek to dismantle it.

Racial reconciliation is yesterday’s goal; today’s is reparations, which doesn’t mean just a check from the government but personal sacrifice – of jobs, money and other tangible things. This apparently now includes sending one’s children to demonstrably lousy schools to serve the greater good.

Senior editor Ash Bennington is joined by Mike “Mish” Shedlock of TheStreet.com to discuss gold and the looming fiscal cliff. Shedlock analyzes the purported “short squeeze” on gold, shining a light on the various players in the future as well as physical markets for gold during its ascendant rally. Bennington and Shedlock then analyze the dysfunction in Washington and gyrating asset markets through the lens of expiring unemployment benefits. Mish’s work can be found at https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/.

Remember the run-up to phase one trade deal?

The Trump administration boasted positive trade headlines around the clock to pump the stock market in 2019 and even in early 2020. The headlines, dubbed “trade optimism,” unleashed multiple expansion in stocks as President Trump told farmers to buy ‘more land,’ ‘bigger tractors’ to handle China’s farm purchases.

President Trump was quoted numerous times, calling the phase one trade deal, the “granddaddy” of all deals, but now, as we’ve outlined, the trade deal was the greatest farce ever. 

Not too long ago, the president recently said he’s not focused on the next phase of the trade deal, otherwise known as “Phase Two.” Odd, because on many occasions, the president was heard touting the next round of deals.

On Monday, we told readers, “China is severely lagging behind purchase commitments laid out in phase one trade agreement.” 

Citing the Peterson Institute for International Economics’ (PIIE) trade tracker, we showed how China’s monthly purchases of US goods covered by the deal through June are at purchase levels of around 47% of year-to-date targets. 

The lack of Chinese buying is not President Trump’s fault, though enforcement of the deal certainly could be. 

While examining trade flows, we uncovered a startling figure that shows China doesn’t need energy products from the US anymore. 

Outlined in a series of charts via Reuters, China has only bought 5% of the targeted $25.3 billion in energy products under phase one agreement. 

This chart is absolutely stunning… 

“China is unlikely to fulfill its Phase 1 commitments as they were overly ambitious, to begin with,” said Michal Meidan, the director at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. 

Days after the agreement was signed, we outlined in a report titled “A $50 Billion Hole Emerges In Trump’s China Trade Deal” how the number of purchases China needed to make this year to fulfill the agreement was “unrealistic.” 

China’s failure to comply with trade commitments, and Trump administration’s lack of enforcement, can only suggest this deal was the greatest farce ever.

Here’s the biggest joke of them all: “China Agrees To Buy More Cars, Airplanes, Energy From US In Phase 1 Trade Deal.” 

It’s just comical at this point, of all the bullshit “trade optimism” headlines that have resulted in an underwhelming deal. While the stock market soared to new highs on the president’s hyped headlines, the real bagholders are farmers, coal miners, factory workers, and blue-collar Americans. 

The lack of enforcement could be reversed on August 15 when the Trump administration is expected to hold high-level talks with China to review Beijing’s compliance of the deal. 

Via SchiffGold.com,

Gold pushed above its all-time record price last week. Where does it go from here? Peter Schiff and Jim Rickards appeared on Kitco News to talk about gold’s trajectory and the possibility of $15,000 gold in the future.

Peter opened up the interview saying he’s surprised it took gold this long to break its record.

A lot has happened in the last decade. We’ve certainly printed a lot of money.”

Peter said the Federal Reserve has moved into a policy from which it can never extricate itself.

When we went to zero, when we did QE, people initially thought it was temporary and we could normalize rates and shrink its balance sheet. And I said from the beginning that was impossible, and I think the markets are now beginning to realize that I was right about that. And when they contemplate a future of endless money printing and zero percent interest rates forever and multi-trillion dollar deficits funded by the Fed’s printing press, it’s starting to sink in, and they’re getting rid of their dollars and they’re buying gold.”

Rickards brought up something commodity trader Jim Rogers told him several years ago. Gold is going to the moon, but nothing goes to the moon without a 50% correction along the way. Between gold’s high in 2011 and its low in 2015, it fell about 50%.

OK, that’s your 50% retracement. Now, that’s the bottom. Now it’s going up and the sky’s the limit.”

Peter said we’ve now formed a very solid base between $1,200 and $1,500.

Now I think we’ve broken out of that range. I think we’ve taken out the highs. I think it’s another leg of the bull market. I don’t think there’re going to be any significant pullbacks from here. I mean, there’ll be pullbacks, but I don’t think they’re going to be very significant. I think if you’re waiting for a big drop to buy gold, you’re going to wait a long time.”

Rickards agreed, saying the retracement is over.

Peter said waiting to buy gold in hope of a higher price is foolish.

The world is going to be full of people who are waiting to buy gold and who are broke because they didn’t just bite the bullet and buy it.”

Host David Lin said he spoke to an economist who said given the Fed’s balance sheet expansion, he forecasts a $4,000 gold price. Lin asked if this was possible. Peter said the only reason that gold stopped at $1,900 after the Great Recession was because people were convinced the Fed could unwind the policy.

Had the market not believed that. then gold would have kept rising.”

The gold bull market in the 1970s ended because Fed Chair Paul Volker was willing to let interest rates rise. Peter asked what will stop it this time?

They can’t let rates go up because we’re too broke to afford it. They’re not going to be able to bluff that they’re going to raise rates in the future because no one’s going to believe that. They’re not going to be able to pretend they can shrink the balance sheet because if they couldn’t shrink it when it was four-and-a-half trillion, how are they going to shrink it when it’s $10 trillion or $20 trillion? Who knows where it’s going? So, I don’t really see how there’s any way that they can stop the dollar from collapsing.”

Peter said ultimately the world is going to sever its relationship with the dollar. It will go off the dollar standard and back on the gold standard.

And I think this is going to be a more precipitous drop in the dollar’s value than it was in the 70s, so we could see something equally impressive in the price of gold.”

Rickards was willing to put a number on it. He projected $15,000 gold by 2025. He extrapolated some data to make his point. And he showed that given the M1 money supply in dollars, euros, pounds, yen and yuan – if you divide it by the official amount of gold, you get about $15,000 per ounce.

If you’re going to have a gold standard or even use gold as a reference point for money, if you need to restore confidence in the dollar, the implied non-deflationary price is $15,000 an ounce.”

Peter said it’s really a moving target because they are still printing money.

Between now and then, there’s going to be a lot of money that’s going to be printed, so who knows where the price of gold has to end up by the time we finish all the money printing?”

Peter said another way to look at it is the price of gold in relation to the Dow Jones. Twice in the prior century during significant bear market lows, the Dow traded down to a single ounce of gold. So, if you look at where the Dow is now at 26,000 and figure where would the price of gold have to be to equal the Dow at the current price, it would be $26,000.

But maybe if we get a big bear market, those two could meet around 15,000.”

Jim emphasized that he’s not exaggerating. He thinks $15,000 is actually conservative. It could be much higher.

China’s saturated EV market is getting even more saturated. How saturated, you ask? The country’s second largest property developer by sales, Evergrande Group, is now getting into the EV market. 

Evergrande New Energy Vehicle, a unit of China Evergrande Group, has now joined the masses in China in dipping its feet into the EV market. The company – which will be a likely direct competitor to Tesla in the country – has unveiled six new-energy car types spanning sedans, SUVs and even a minivan.

The company says it is going to “push ahead with the production and official launch of the cars,” according to Bloomberg. The vehicles will be branded under Hengchi, Evergrande’s new energy vehicle name.

The company also reiterated its commitment to become the largest and most powerful new energy automobile group in the world in just three to five years. We wonder: has anyone woken this guy up from his haze and told him?

Recall, just days ago we noted that there has been non-stop hype in EV stocks for the better part of the last several years. Over the last few months, that momentum has picked up. We just noted days ago that many EV-makers in China were going public just to stave off bankruptcy, showcasing the market’s appetite for such names. 

Stocks in the U.S. like Kandi Technologies, Nio and Workhorse have all had recent runs on the back of continued EV hype.

And new Chinese startup Li Auto just saw major success upon listing its shares on the NASDAQ, proving that: a) the EV hype is still alive and b) U.S. investors have learned precisely nothing from watching one China-based fraud implode after another. Li Auto is backed by TikTok owner Bytedance and ecommerce company Meituan Dianping. 

Tu Le, founder of Sino Auto Insights, told FT: “The US market clearly still has a large appetite for electric vehicles, but it’s frothy and there is probably a bubble.” 

The company was founded in 2015 and sold 10,400 of its six seater SUV hybrid vehicle that use both a battery and a combustion engine by June of this year. The company – as we noted in our above linked article – faces significant competition from a growing field of EV names coming out of China.

The competition in the EV market – especially in China – is starting to become super-saturated. But rather than actually allow the market to consolidate and eliminate some of the smaller players, Chinese EV companies are taking another route to stave off going under: going public.

Hozon New Energy Automobile is the latest name to launch an IPO, Bloomberg pointed out in a recent article, saying it wants to list in Shanghai next year. WM Motor Technology Co. is also considering a listing, potentially this year. They will join names like Evergrande, Nio, Tesla and Li Auto in competing in the world’s largest auto market.

Hozon is trying to capitalize on lower priced vehicles, offering an electric SUV for less than $10,000. The company has already shipped more than 16,000 vehicles. WM Motor is seeking a valuation of about $4.3 billion and is backed by names like Baidu and Tencent. Li Auto is seeking an IPO in the U.S. that could raise up to $1 billion.